Tennis: Roddick Has Sights Set

Roger Federer, being the polite champion that he is, always feels duty bound to mention Tim Henman as one of the players who can win the Wimbledon title, although there was no doubt yesterday whom the world No1 regards as the real danger. "For me Andy Roddick is the biggest threat of all."

Roddick, the second seed, but ranked No4 in the world, has almost become the forgotten man of the top five. And this having finished runner-up to Federer here last year when, for a set and half until the rain break, the extraordinary power of his game had looked capable of reducing the Swiss to something approaching impotence.

Power - the whip-crack serve and the colossal forehand - have always been the essence of Roddick's game, one that two years ago lifted the American to the pinnacle of the game. Briefly, when he won the US Open in 2003, his one and only grand slam title, it appeared he would strong-arm his way to world dominance. Now that golden arm has become appreciably tarnished.

Roddick's last major win was at the Nasdaq-100 in Miami in March last year. Federer supplanted him as the world No1 and a rejuvenated Lleyton Hewitt humiliated Roddick at last year's end-of-season Tennis Masters Cup in Houston and has beaten him twice this year, in the semi-finals of the Australian Open and at the same stage of the Tennis Masters Series at Indian Wells.

"When Andy came back from Melbourne the first question he was asked in San Jose was 'what's gone wrong?'" said his new coach Dean Goldfine. "I mean, the guy had just reached the last four of a slam." If Henman sometimes believes himself to be undervalued and unloved, a so-called "failure" because he has never reached the Wimbledon final, it is as nothing compared with the response in the US, where winning is absolutely everything.

Tennis struggles to make much impact in the US anyway although, when Roddick won the US Open as a 21-year-old, he was embraced as the next in line to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, and immediately had a multi-champion tag hung round his neck.

To be fair to Roddick, he never encouraged such talk, being well aware of his own frailties, notably on the backhand. Brad Gilbert attempted to wean Roddick towards the net but the defeat by Hewitt in Houston underlined the American's vulnerability in that area. Gilbert and Roddick parted company and now Goldfine, an altogether lower-profile coach, formerly with Todd Martin, is working on the fine-tuning.

"Andy wants to work hard and that's what I'm all about," said Goldfine. "He's in amazing shape and now I'm trying to get him to understand the risk-reward relationship - the times when he should be going for a little bit more and the times he should be playing a high-percentage shot. Todd [Martin] tended to be on the side of not taking enough chances while Andy at times tends to take too much of a risk."

This discipline and balance was much in evidence at Queen's, with Roddick winning the Stella Artois title for the third successive year; hence Federer's caution. The grass season is so short and so unrelated to the rest of the year (this despite the truer bounce of the Wimbledon courts now) that Federer knows Roddick is a bigger threat to him here than on the hard courts.

"Andy has the belief he can do well on grass. There are a lot of players who don't really like the surface and never feel comfortable on it," said Federer, who after his own third successive victory at Halle has won 29 successive matches on grass.

To some extent this is a crossroads major for Roddick. Reebok chose not to renew his clothing contract this year and he is now with Lacoste, a French company. Corporate America, or so it seems, has already posed the question "Andy who?"

"When Sampras and Agassi were playing they had Jim Courier, Michael Chang and Todd backing them up. Andy has been on his own and under the microscope. All the attention fell on him," said Goldfine. "He's a perfectionist and expects a lot of himself. He's had a bit of a disappointing time but I know he can do a lot, lot better."

As well as Roddick (and Henman), Hewitt is the other name that Federer always mentions as a potential winner, the Australian having won the title in 2002. Hewitt has that belief on grass, although first a toe and then a rib injury mean he has played only three matches, all at Queen's, since losing at Indian Wells against Federer in March. The first week is consequently likely to be tough for the Australian but, if he survives through to the quarter-finals, his confidence will grow accordingly.

Of the other top five the Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal, the French Open champion, will cause a huge stir by his very presence but it may be a year or two before he mounts a serious challenge on grass; even now he should not be under-estimated. As for Marat Safin, his run to the final at Halle gave hope that the enigmatic Russian, the reigning Australian Open champion, may be beginning to adjust to grass and learn how to love it.

If Federer plays at his best he will surely win a third successive title. The rest must hope he is a little tired and a little short of his best but he is likely to lift the golden trophy anyway.